Anyone ever seen a square, handmade(?) guitar?

I found this at the thrift store yesterday - I'm thinking it's handmade because I couldn't find anything when I googled 'square wood guitar' (I know it's not actually a square - is it a 'pyramid shape'?).
Has anyone seen anything like this? Is there another description I'm not thinking of (or know)?
It's missing a corner of veneer on the bottom of each of the back corners, but it doesn't go all the way through the guitar.
Can that be repaired? Is it worth it?
Thank you for any information!
PS - It was a good day at the thrift store - I also found a old Univox guitar amplifier (I didn't have any rca jacks to test it but the power light came on when I plugged it in; so for $19.95 I bought it!) & a still sealed Battlestar Galatica The Game board game.
I grabbed the Battlestar Galatica because it was sci fi; I was Shocked when I looked at the sold prices on eBay to see if I was going to sell it or keep it (even though I'm a Star Trek guy I love all old sci fi & this one only cost $4.95) - the sold prices were $175 - $250!!

 

PS - The guitar was $14.95 but I didn't have any fingernail polish remover to take the sharpie off; so I made the 1 a 7 in case it sold this week-end at our yard sale!

 

Square guitar? Only on the walls of a museum!

Debora

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_box_guitar

Debora

 

Actually I have seen one somewhere, but don't ask me where, and it WASN'T recently!!!!

 

I've seen them before, made of legit cigar boxes. This one looks like the neck was really a guitar neck. Not hand built from scavenged pieces. I'd have snagged the Galactica board game too. No telling what that sells for, but the show had a hard core following.

 

Bo Diddly's was rectangular, if memory serves.

 

maybe a development of the cigar box instruments

History of the Cigar Box Guitar (cigarboxguitars.com)

 

Martin made a trapezoid guitar. Looks uncomfortable to play, but then balalaikas are triangular.

 

That's the Ron Moore Galactica reboot, not the original.

I had these, once.

 

THAT is a museum acquisition number on the back! Don't remove it! It was donated in 1974, donation number 99. If you can find out what institution it came from, there should be a record of the provenance.

 

Memory serves you well ghopper. Mr. Bo did play a rectangular body guitar. (Rather well I might add.)

 

It isn't a cigar-box guitar, because it isn't made from a cigar-box; and nothing I recognize.
I'd be pretty sure this is simply a home-made guitar, made in that shape because it is so much easier than making jigs to bend the sides for a normal guitar shape.
The boxiness of the heel would indicate that the neck also was home-made, not scavenged from an existing guitar; and that the maker was not a sophisticated or experienced builder, but was just looking for a fast easy way to make a guitar. Plywood would not be the wood of choice for a decent instrument.
(One reason that cigar-boxes worked fairly well was that they were often made of rather light, resonant wood).
And I'm sorry, but if that is an accession number, I doubt it means anything much, unless it can be traced to a famous person....like if Elvis made it in his basement.
But that's what it is - a very simplistic guitar that someone made in their basement or garage.

 

PS -in the early 70s or so there was a company that made kits for musical instruments, thumb pianos, and trapezoidal 6 and 12 string guitars; this may be one of them. I have one of the 12-string kits myself, though I repurposed the parts and never made a guitar from it. I'll run down to the basement and see if I have the company name; this could be one of theirs.

 

I bet that's what it is - made from a Hughes kit. He called it a peach-box guitar. And those kits were plywood. I built two of their thumb pianos, but never assembled the 12-string guitar. But the heel would be very boxy.
We could verify by comparing dimensions - I'll check the length of the body, thickness, and width at top and bottom. Photos:

 

@Darkwing Manor - Journey says he altered the number 1 into a 7 with a sharpie.

 

I measured and checked the instructions. Materials look consistent with yours; top was available in solid spruce or mahogany; I got the spruce, and that might be what yours has. Even with the plywood back and sides it might not be a terrible sounding guitar, though the neck is very boxy and might be hard to play. Top and bottom of the box were mahogany, which looks consistent with yours.
Measurements approximate, because mine is unassembled:
thickness 4 1/4"
body length about 17"
width at top of box 8 1/2"
width at bottom of box 11 1/4"

A Denver museum might actually have had, or might still have, some interest in one of these, as he was a local person.

 

Googling V. E. Hughes Peach Box Guitar is tricky, because both Hughes and Peach are current brand names in the guitar world. Hughes did write a book or booklet about assembling the kit, listed used on Amazon, but possibly not actually available.
Check the measurements; that should confirm whether this was a Hughes kit guitar.

 

PPS, one might think it odd that I had a kit to build a trapezoidal guitar in my basement, yet didn't at first even remember it.....
Not as strange as it might seem, my memory has holes in it...… and I've been collecting guitars and guitar parts and broken guitars (as well as playable ones) for years. Yikes...the early 70s were 50 years ago.
And I just remembered, I also built two dulcimers from Hughes kits.

 

No I'm sorry - the guitar was priced at 14.99 & I didn't have any fingernail polish remover when I got home to take it off - so I made the 1 into a 7 so I could go from there in my estate/garage sale over week-end